Real-Life Decision Making
You've been called out for an emergency repair at a local hotel. The owner told you over the phone that the computer system was partially down, and they weren't able to check in any guests. Could you please come out right away to fix the system?
You arrive in half an hour and find that the owner has stepped out. Ned, the receptionist, has been left in charge. You ask Ned if there are any other computers attached to this computer, if there are any sub-systems controlled by this machine, or if there is any data on the machine that needs to be saved.
If you turn off the power to fix the machine, you may ruin or lose valuable data.
Ned isn't sure if any data needs to be saved or if the computer runs other systems. He does know that the owner left with the instructions: "Tell the technician to do whatever he wants to get the computer up and running."
"If you can't do anything without turning off the power, I think you should turn it off," advises Ned. "The owner gets pretty angry when things aren't done when he gives orders."
What are you going to do? Are you going to wait until the owner returns to start fixing the computer, even though you don't know how long he will be gone for or if he's already saved the data he needs? Or are you going to go ahead and turn off the power and fix the machine?
What do you do?